Music conferences organised by music educationists Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar featured not only performances bu...
Music conferences organised by music educationists Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar featured not only performances but also included musicological discussions. Music festivals that were organised later seem to have focused on performances and did not necessarily include discussions on various aspects of music-making. However, the Bombay-based Sur Singar Samsad, which annually hosted the Swami Haridas Sammelan several years after the conferences organised by Bhatkhande and Paluskar, also held a seminar from November 11 to 15, 1955.
Writing about the seminar, music critic Mohan Nadkarni wrote, “. . . the seminar brought to the fore a number of significant problems relating to the history and aesthetics of Indian music, and some revelations concerning the State of Indian dance at the present time. Eminent scholars from different parts of the country gathered together at this function, and papers on various aspects of history and theory of music and dance were read and discussed by them, before the invited audience.”
I am not sure if the Samsad continued to hold seminars in succeeding years, but it is certain that most organisers who have been active in the field for the past several decades do not seem to have seen any merit in addressing issues related to...
